Does your 8 glasses of water have to be water??!

I'm sure this conversation would look silly to people in countries where clean water is a luxury.

The UK National Health Service says:
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http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/water-drinks.aspx
The Department of Health recommends that we should drink about 1.2 litres of fluid every day to stop us getting dehydrated. This works out to be about six 200ml or eight 150ml glasses, cups or mugs. In hotter climates, the body needs more water than this.

The total amount of water we lose each day and need to replace is in fact greater than this – about 2.5 litres – but we get 1 litre of the fluid we need from food and the body recovers 0.3 litres from chemical reactions in our cells. The rest needs to be taken from drinks.

All drinks count, but water, milk and fruit juices are the healthiest. It is best to avoid alcoholic drinks.
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OMG everytime this comes up I just want to scream.

NO it does not have to be plain water. ANY fluid counts toward your daily.
If it has calories, you need to track it in your food journal too -- thats the only difference.

I haven't drank a plain glass of water in years... I don't like it and I'm not going to force it down.

I haven't dropped dead yet, go figure.

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How much water a day? (By the Mayo Clinic) - http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22178/46361-coffee-makes-dehydrated-say-what

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/drinking-enough-water-topic-overview

http://www.livestrong.com/article/466085-can-you-substiture-green-tea-for-the-8-glasses-of-water-a-day/

"Eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Another approach to water intake is the "8 x 8 rule" — drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day (about 1.9 liters). The rule could also be stated, "Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day," as all fluids count toward the daily total. Although the approach really isn't supported by scientific evidence, many people use this easy-to-remember rule as a guideline for how much water and other fluids to drink."

^ This. It's predominantly water, small amount of sugar intake isn't a bad thing unless you're diabetic, Juice has beneficial vitamins, tea has anti-oxidants, milk is chock full of BCAA's and even caffeine in moderation can have health benefits. In the end, they are all mostly water and hydration is the key. Personally, I don't like the sugar, LOL but I'm not against it entirely.
I believe it's best not to overthink the water thing. Just count the calories into your macros, and be happy. Whatever it takes to get that water into your body is OK in my eyes and my wheels haven't fallen off cause I'm a coffe fanatic! LOL. Just my 2cents.

This whole thread makes me /facepalm.

The general health guideline is that ANY FLUID that is NON-ALCOHOLIC is considered towards your "8 glasses of water per day".

It is FLUID INTAKE your body needs to remain HYDRATED. Your body DOES NOT CARE if it is juice or tea or flavoured water or piss in a glass AS LONG AS YOU HAVE FLUID INTAKE.

The ONLY difference is that you don't need to track a glass of water in you calories intake, but you SHOULD track anything that has calories eg a glass of juice or a can of Coca Cola

Found this article very interesting and helpful!

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_water.php

Within reason being natural flavoring like a squeeze of lemon, lime, or orange. Or hell they have some contraption that lets you make ice cubes from fruit juice to flavor your water.

do you mean an ice cube tray?

Ummmm - while I agree that some people may be sensitive to aspartame - the myth that is is bad for you has been pretty much debunked.

I'd love to see some links to read through confirming this. The movie "Sweet Misery" convinced me to stop allowing aspartame in my house.

lol. Lot of snark on this forum. :laugh:

Thanks to those people who linked to actual, credible sources. I wasn't aware that there was recent research on this issue that debunked the '8 glasses of pure water' thing.

Personally I do drink 8+ glasses of plain, filtered water a day because I like the taste, it helps control my appetite, and it makes me feel better. Also I like the idea of toxins being flushed out while I am losing the weight. This is probably purely psychological though.

its water we drink and water we consume from fruits and vegetables
i guess bit of flavored water should do but not all

Within reason being natural flavoring like a squeeze of lemon, lime, or orange. Or hell they have some contraption that lets you make ice cubes from fruit juice to flavor your water.

do you mean an ice cube tray?

OMG! That cracked me up!:laugh:

[

Beyond reason is anything with sweeteners like Crystal Light and Mio. That stuff is not water. You can pretend it is all you want but that's like arguing soda's water because there happens to be water in it.

I disagree on this. If I have a glass of water that I add Mio or crstal light packets to it is now probably 98% water and 2% flavor. I am counting that as water. Soda, no. When I have a powerade-zero after my workout to rehydrate, I count that. I know I would have trouble consuming as much water as I do without crystal light, Mio and stevia.

I think people need to use common sense and realize that water comes in a lot of sources. According to the poster of the quote all the water content of vegtables is not really water, it is vegtable. Hmmmm. Soda, coffee, tea and the like I would not consider "water". I tend to think if I am consuming it for the purpose of hydration it is probably water, if I am doing it for taste or satisfaction of a craving, it is probably not.

Just my $.02. Each of us has to determine what is right for us. There is no one size fits all solution, or we would all already be where we want to be instead of being in a constant experimentation mode to get us there.

I don't get how some people can NOT like the taste of water. I mean... it's water. There really IS no taste, unless you happen to get funky water that has a lot of chlorine/iron/etc in it. And it boggles my mind that there are people that have gone YEARS without drinking a glass of water!
No matter which side of the fence you're on in this debate, I'm pretty sure it's extremely healthy for you to drink some plain water at least every so often!
Nevertheless, this thread was interesting to read.

No, I think they called them canteens back then.

WATER = WATER = WATER! :drinker:

Artificial flavoring, colors, tea, unsweetened or not is NOT Water.:sad:
Tea, coffee, wine, juice = LIQUID
And some are dehydrating = drink MORE PLAIN WATER

A doctor told me years ago that we don't wash our clothes in tea, right?!!
Same applies here..........

WATER = WATER = WATER! :drinker: :flowerforyou:

We may not wash our clothes in tea, but we dont use pure water either. We add to it, but still say we wash in water. Hmmmmmmm

its really friggin hard to drink 8 glasses of water a day and not be too full for actual food.....maybe i need smaller cups! im drinking out of gnc protein shake glasses!

It's easy to get your fluids in if you have a larger cup! How many ounces is the shake glass? I would guess that it is 16oz at minimum--which means that each one of those you drink is really TWO glasses. I personally like 24 and 32 oz water bottles. I drink 3-4 of those a day...